No promises on length.

[taennyn]

But hey. It's been a while since I did a sparks post, hasn't it. :)


Wild Roses:
ripple effect - Gideon; appears to be related to unexpected and unrefusable cargo 1

(interpret as liberally as you like) - early Crown Navy era, Ulysse and Lida

Putting one foot in front of another - Trickwood Unification, Ruadhan (appears to be in the period between arrangements and arguments [where Dón knows Ruadhan's into the woods but has no idea whatsoever exactly where he is], and when Ruadhan actually shows up in Hernén's demesnes and starts being his irritatingly noisy self all over the woods.)
figures emerging from mist - Trickwood Unification, Evescha and Ioann
A thin layer of ice on everything - Trickwood Unification, Ioann and Evescha
second verse, same as the first - Trickwood Unification, Ruadhan
swans - Trickwood Unification, Geoffrey, references unexpected and unrefusable cargo 2
"actually, that's their version of a friendly hello" - Trickwood Unification, unknown
bees in a glass jar - Some Kind of Love Song, 'Jack Gibson'
"I already gave you my decision" - Trickwood Unification, Jared and Hernén

=DDDD - Jonathan Sabaey and his Sense of Impending Doom

that godsdamned ticking - Alternate Earths, Yasha

-------

Witches' Horses:
"Don't write THAT down" - Sibir, Stas
loss of vision/sight - Sibir, Nadya
passing the bottle around the campfire - Sibir, Nadya
working on 72 hours without sleep - Sibir, Nadya

Blue glass - Chevalier de Grammont, Grammont and Sinclair

Untapped amber - Falcons' Feathers, Irina
no really it will fit - Falcons' Feathers, Khenbish

The kind of soup one can only get at home - Swallow's Tale, Taarstad
"what's the fuzzball chewing on now?" - Swallow's Tale, Helena and Sascha

--------

Deaths:
sparkling like water - The Morrigan
Clock tower - Julian De'Ath
Booby trap(s) - The Morrigan
insufficient resources - Deaths, Julian and Eduard De'Ath

-------

The Mummy Series:
the gravitational pull of bed - Mummy postscript, Evie Carnahan
"what is my life what are my choices" - Rick O'Connell
pie - Evie Carnahan and Rick O'Connell
"Why am I juggling magicians?" - Evie Carnahan, Rick O'Connell, Jonathan Carnahan

-------

Other:
OH GODS FINALLY - Unknown
tumbleweeds - Unknown

Comments

[recessional]

- working on 72 hours without sleep

- "what is my life what are my choices"

- the gravitational pull of bed

- OH GODS FINALLY

- swans

- pie

[illian]

Booby trap(s)

"Don't write THAT down."

Blue glass

Untapped amber

"Why am I juggling magicians?"

[lemon_badgeress]

loss of vision/sight

second verse, same as the first

no really it will fit

tumbleweeds

bees in a glass jar

(interpret as liberally as you like)

[goshawk]

"I already gave you my decision."

ripple effect

passing the bottle around the campfire

insufficient resources

sparkling like water

[konsectatrix]

=DDDD

The kind of soup one can only get at home

figures emerging from mist

that godsdamned ticking

"what's the fuzzball chewing on now?"

"actually, that's their version of a friendly hello"

the gravitational pull of _bed_ - Mummy series, Evie

[taennyn]

Considering the circumstances, she's been sleeping beautifully.

Acknowledging the circumstances, even with the assistance of the Medjai--who have really been very generous considering she rather woke the boogeyman of their entire history and has been indirectly responsible for rather a lot of deaths in the last two weeks--she's been sleeping in the lee of a camel with a waterskin for a pillow, someone else's robe for a blanket, with a near-stranger sleeping (disconcertingly lightly) between her and the desert for almost a week.

(He's still got the sword. There had been an unpleasant fifteen seconds before they recognised one another the first night, when her bladder had made protests about the amount of coffee Ardeth Bey's fierce female cousins had pressed on her before they departed, and he'd woken at the sound of her sitting up to go and . . attempt to find a discreet bush.)

She wants to sleep in a bed so much the words are almost literally unspeakable, the yearning gravitational in its power.

If any of the riverboats have survived the rain of fire--please God let them have, Egypt needs her boats--she may even give away a piece of the Golden Room for a cabin to share.

Re: the gravitational pull of _bed_ - Mummy series, Evie

[recessional]

Bwahahah. Poor Evie. That WOULD be a less than hugely fun trip back across the desert. :P

"Don't write THAT down." - Sibir, Stas

[taennyn]

"No, no, don't write that down," Stas heard as he helped carry one of the new kids into the medsestras' station, and couldn't help craning his neck to see.

An off-duty nickel was trying to fish the tablet right out of the hands of the girl doing intake notes, and was going to get his knuckles flicked with the stylus if Stas was any judge.

"That is not the way that happened," the nickel continued, scowling at a fellow nickel, then yelped as he got his knuckles rapped. Twice. Once with the stylus, then with the edge of the tablet when he didn't get out of the medsestra's personal space fast enough.

"Please continue," she commanded the nickel's buddy, who was wearing riders' bars.

The buddy shot a cautious look over towards Stas, who grinned.

"I am definitely not here." Hoisting his new kid onto a chair so he could prop his foot up on a bench and make faces at the remains of his boot, Stas continued "Definitely not dropping off someone who got bit by a horse, and definitely unavailable for court martial witness duty. See?"

He walked backwards towards the door, saluting the medsestra, who'd obviously flipped to a new intake sheet and made a note before flipping back to her current problem, and turned around but couldn't help hearing her say "I really don't care what you've been drinking when, I just need to know what happened and if I can't give you specific medications until it wears off!" as he got out of earshot.

Re: the gravitational pull of _bed_ - Mummy series, Evie

[konsectatrix]

That's ...a very visceral bit. like the kind of tired where you're well past the point that you want to be a fuckin' toddler about it.

on that note, i'm off to bed myself. ;)

Re: "Don't write THAT down." - Sibir, Stas

[recessional]

Poor, POOR medico. XD

Loss of vision/sight - Sibir, Nadya

[taennyn]

They were in the middle of an emergency extraction, doctors and medsestras crowded in shoulder to shoulder to hip and ankle with engineers, and she saw it coming. Just barely, but she had time to get her eyes closed.

Someone else yelped--likely her neighbour getting tagged in the thigh by a chunk of the coolant pipe--as she tried not to scream. Grit her teeth hard as searing-hot-wet-freezing hit her across the face.

She allowed herself a gasp, then said "Get me out right now, eye wash bottle in the secondary kit, now now now--"

Someone hooked an arm around her hips from behind, yanked unceremoniously, and she thanked several saints that she'd been packed in too closely with other bodies to have to worry about getting her head bounced off a piece of the half-shattered horse.

Hoped the casualties from right next to her were going to be low, but she wouldn't be doing any triage until she got whatever horror was currently on her face off her face dear God in Heaven it felt like it was trying to eat through her eyebrows. "Eye wash" she repeated herself, still getting dragged past other people's limbs.

She could still hear the trapped soldiers swearing. That was good.

Hanging half-upsidedown from--someone--'s grip on her was less good, especially when someone who definitely wasn't a doctor said something she was definitely not supposed to understand, then started yelling for a solvent.

"Eye wash bottle, green bag, should be by the strut that was holding when we got in, right now" she said, then snapped her mouth closed and held her breath when the not-a-doctor said "Solvent first, sorry dyevushka, this is going to feel terrible" and splashed a powdery liquid from her hairline to her collarbones.

It felt like she was abruptly covered in extremely angry live bees. She very seriously considered swearing. Kept holding her breath instead, because--yes. There was the second hit, thank you, Engineer whoever-you-are, she would definitely be remembering this moment.

This time there was a cloth involved, dabbing and blotting, and then she heard the seal ripping off the eyewash container.

Knowledgeable hands guided her into position, and she swished. Blinked into the opaque container, trying to feel if there was any actual damage beyond the bees crawling all over her face still, swished again, signaled for the second canister.

As the old fluid got vacuum-pumped away, she smelled blood, tried to lift her head, got stopped. "I'll be fine," Heléne Alexeivna said, "you focus on you, Nadyezhda Valentinevna, you're the one who got hit in the face, I just need some glue once we get everyone out of that twice-blessed horse."

ripple effect - early(ish) Wild Roses, Gideon

[taennyn]

(Note: somewhere near Unexpected and unrefusable cargo 1, honestly not sure if before or after though)

The ripples started small. Very small, almost invisible in the bright light reflecting off the water.

Gideon leaned on the deck railing, waited.

The Mariana's shadow grew slightly smaller, then rippled once.

Twice.

Bent, shook, slithered, curled, then withered as the water belled, grabbed at her hull, heeled her over like she'd been struck by a terrible wind and kept her there.

Three of her rigging runners fell out of her.

"Told you not to steal my cargo," he muttered, then whistled up at his own rigging to loose the sails.

figures emerging from mist - Trickwood Unification, Evescha and Ioann

[taennyn]

"Oh, they're back already." She sat up, stretched, debated standing up onto two feet and then did it, because Ioann was giving her that 'I can't believe you' look again.

"The wind's coming from the other direction," he said as she did, and she laughed at him.

"Can't you see them?" she jerked her chin towards the stirrings in the mist. "Not everything is about the nose, you know!"

He paused, arms at a weird angle, peering, then dropped his hands to his sides. "All right, yes, I suppose I can see them. But that doesn't mean I don't have a point."

She laced her fingers together, stretched her arms up overhead, circled her shoulders, her hips--she always forgot how nice it was to move her arms instead of her forelegs, when she'd been on four feet for a while--then scruffled her fingers through her hair, which badly needed rebraiding. (He'd do it as soon as they settled somewhere, especially if she stayed two-legged.) "Is your point that you need to spend more time in your nose instead of your head?"

He ran out his tongue at her, pink and jeering, never as long as it was when he was four legged, and she absently licked her canines to check she'd remembered to blunt them enough as he added "No, my point is that you say things your nose shouldn't be able to tell you and you're always right and it's really annoying."

"Useful, though," she agreed, and sat down cross-legged to watch the figures emerging from the mist.

"That'd be the really annoying part, yes," he grumbled, dropping down next to her and propping his forearms over his knees.

Re: the gravitational pull of _bed_ - Mummy series, Evie

[taennyn]

considering she lost almost all of her gear on the way out the first time, it's kind of a wonder she actually stuck with fieldwork.

(No it's not. She's changing the face of her field. Take that Bembridge Scholars.)

Re: figures emerging from mist - Trickwood Unification, Evescha and Ioann

[konsectatrix]

*griiiin* she's observant as hell, and he's just like '???'

I love the physicality you bring to the table with your writing.

pie - Mummy series, Evie and Rick

[taennyn]

"Oh, that wasn't me," she corrected, "I'm afraid I can make tea and pull together a passable array of tea sandwiches and cold sausages if I'm allowed access to a well-stocked kitchen, but baking and coffee are beyond my skills."

O'Connell blinked at her. "I could have sworn that was you who kept making half-decent coffee out in--"

She smiled, or tried to. "No, that was Jonathan. He only cooks if no-one's watching and it's obvious no-one else is planning to. I don't think he can bake--I suppose he might." She considered the idea. "If he can it's likely something like shepherd's pie? I've never had occasion to test the hypothesis, but I think he learnt in the War, and he won't talk about the War."

"Huh," O'Connell remarked. He rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "I guess that explains why the warden kept swearing about his coffee beans going missing."

She couldn't help the impish smile that spread across her face. "I'm sure the opportunity to stick it to that awful little man didn't hurt, no."

Re: pie - Mummy series, Evie and Rick

[recessional]

JONATHAN <3

Re: Loss of vision/sight - Sibir, Nadya

[recessional]

Auuuuugh. *scrubs at own face*

Untapped amber - Falcons' Feathers, Irina

[taennyn]

It was the biggest piece of amber Irina had ever seen, crazed through with cracks and seams from long ago tumbles, and it was very clear that nobody had ever so much as tapped it with a padded stylus. It would have shattered immediately.

She was going to throw it at his head when she saw him next. She didn't know where it had come from, or what he intended by stashing it where her repair tools normally hid in her horse's neck--actually, they were still there, tucked further back, but the case was visible in distorted warped reflections through the fossilised sap--but she absolutely could not let anyone else find it in her horse. Moreso than her tools, moreso than her repaired boots, because she could pretend the stablehands had been indulging her with those, but a piece of untapped amber the size of her two fists put together would need explaining.

And she had no lie for that.

Re: ripple effect - early(ish) Wild Roses, Gideon

[recessional]

I sort of wonder if it's before, since he seems more irked about cargo than, you know, THE REST OF IT. And also this feels like something that would PROMPT the rest of it.

Re: figures emerging from mist - Trickwood Unification, Evescha and Ioann

[recessional]

Really it almost seems like he spends too MUCH time in his nose - like in the loudest parts of his body-senses, which in a wolf is always going to be the nose - and not ENOUGH time back in the control room of his head, collating and considering data.

second verse, same as the first - Trickwood Unification, Ruadhan

[taennyn]

He could hear Dón's voice in his head as he looked at the map. The words were clear as Arianhrod's when she was in a mood, without the sense of leaning presence that meant he was actually holding an icon and waiting for Ruadhan to notice. Dry as dust, not quite to the point of rolling his eyes but close: Second verse, same as the first.

Not quite, Ruadhan thought, looking over the design of the hillfort and noticing the individual details some thoughtful mapmaker had added indicating steep approaches and the overhangs that would let someone roll nice big rocks onto the heads of approaching traffic if they felt like it.

"Remind me: what have this lot done?" he asked, because he was sure he'd been told but the details had gone.

sparkling like water - The Morrigan

[taennyn]

There's no reason to come back. None whatsoever, and yet she's back in the city, back at the tailor's shop, buying silk that sparkled like water in the light, commissioning a sweep-necked blouse and thinking about how the fabric will feel against her skin.

Satin-silk's not her usual game: it snags and wilts and blood almost never comes out of it completely, not enough to pass muster in bright light.

But there's something about this piece that draws her. Makes her think of rustling feathers and rushing waters at shallow fords.

She'll work it out eventually.

that godsdamned ticking - Alternate Earths, Yasha

[taennyn]

"HOW ARE YOU NOT HEARING THAT!" the Kid howled suddenly, threw his book across the room, and attacked a cupboard.

Books and papers and.... blocks? went flying, occasionally dooring more or less at random so they bounced into weird corners and behind the bookshelves, until the Kid came up for air disheveled but triumphant, clutching a small stuffed caiman in one hand.

Which he promptly disassembled. Luckily it was meant to, because the Kid didn't look like he would have stopped otherwise, and springs and clock-gears scattered everywhere.

.... Now that it had stopped, there was definitely less baseline irritation at the universe in general for being slightly out of phase with itself.

Glass considered the evidence, then made a mental note to tell Dutch that Magis Harrier was getting more creative and could he possibly make him stop.

Re: pie - Mummy series, Evie and Rick

[taennyn]

<3